The errors of Snipes' ways

Saturday

Apr 26, 2008 at 12:01 AMApr 26, 2008 at 12:25 AM

Before action film star Wesley Snipes was sentenced Thursday, he embarked on a 10-minute soliloquy, publicly apologizing for not paying his taxes and remitting checks worth $5 million as a down payment on the estimated $17 million he owes in back taxes, penalties and interest.
As has been the case with much of Snipes' behavior during this journey, his overtures amounted to too little too late.
From the outset of the Snipes' case, which began publicly in October 2006, when federal prosecutors released his indictment on multiple counts of tax evasion and conspiracy, we have witnessed little remorse but lots of defiance.
Throughout, Snipes thumbed his nose to almost all involved in his case: the federal government and the American people by not paying taxes on nearly $40 million he earned - as a defense to not paying, the Orlando-born Snipes claimed he was a "nonresident alien" of the United States - and even at one point filing for an $11 million refund when he hadn't paid the taxes to begin with; to the legal system for asserting prosecutors targeted him because he is black; to his own legal team, which was often shuffled as Snipes blasted them as incompetent in firing them; and to our community, for asserting he could not receive a fair trial in Ocala and wanting the trial moved to New York City because we in Marion County are racists, living in a veritable "hotbed of Klan activity," as his legal team once put it.
Ultimately, though, like the tax dodge scheme Snipes bought into from his co-defendants, Eddie Ray Khan and Douglas Rosile, it all fell through. The jury convicted him in February of three misdemeanor counts of willfully failing to file a tax return. And on Thursday, Senior U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges sentenced Snipes to three years in prison, the maximum under federal guidelines.
Judge Hodges handed down an appropriate sentence and, in the process, sent a message, actually two messages.
The first is that being rich and famous does not entitle one to a free pass in the U.S. legal system.
Too often it seems the wealthy and well connected are able to slip from the clutches of justice because of who they are and how much high-priced legal talent they can hire. The notion has taken hold in the public consciousness that America has two legal systems, one for the rich and one for everyone else. Hodges took a step toward restoring some faith in our system.
The second is more obvious, much easier to understand and was best summed up by the lead prosecutor, acting U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neill, who told reporters: "You gotta pay your taxes. Rich or poor, it doesn't matter."
No one likes to pay taxes, but as much as we detest doing so, we should hold in lower regard those who, like Snipes, try to evade their responsibility and share of the burden.